Pages

Friday, November 13, 2015

"Theme from Doctor Detroit" by Devo

Pop Bits: Devo's previous Pop chart entry, "Working in the Coal Mine" (#43 Pop, #53 Rock), was featured in the 1981 animated film "Heavy Metal." This next chart entry also came from a movie. It was written specifically for the Dan Aykroyd comedy "Doctor Detroit." The film was expected to be a major summer hit, but instead it became a box office bomb. Although this song did pretty well getting near the top half of the Pop chart, it might have been done a bit better had the movie been a hit. This single would be Devo's last to reach the chart.

ReduxReview: As much as I like the bizzaro world of Devo and their quirky music, I didn't care much for this song. I'm sure it was a challenge to write a song specifically for this oddball film. They kind of pulled it off since it is probably the best thing about the movie. However, when compared to a lot of their own catalog, this song doesn't come close to being among their best.

ReduxRating: 5/10

Trivia: Double Shot! 1) Co-founding member of Devo, Mark Mothersbaugh, began to branch out into composing music for TV and film later in the 80s. His first major work was providing music for "Pee-Wee's Playhouse" in 1986. That was followed later by his music for the animated show "Rugrats." Mothersbaugh would write music for a lot of TV programs over the years and he continues to do so for shows like "Shameless" and "The Last Man on Earth." He has also done film scores as well, most notably four for director Wes Anderson including 2001's "The Royal Tenenbaums." More recently, he has done the scores for the animated hits "The Lego Movie" and "Hotel Transylvania 2." 2) Surprisingly, Devo only placed one song on the Rock chart ("Working in the Coal Mine"). Even more surprising is that they put eight songs on the Dance chart including two Top 10's. Their classic "Whip It" reached #8, but their biggest Dance chart hit came in 1983 when "That's Good" from their album "Oh, No! It's Devo" reached #6.
_________________________________________________________________________________